Progress Makes Us Miserable - Dr Christopher Ryan (2019 Rerun)
Psychology In Seattle Podcast
Kirk Honda
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2025
⏱️ 82 minutes
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November 13, 2019
The Psychology In Seattle Podcast ®
Trigger Warning: This episode may include topics such as assault, trauma, and discrimination. If necessary, listeners are encouraged to refrain from listening and care for their safety and well-being.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, deserving listeners. We have a really special guest on the podcast today, Dr. Christopher Ryan. Many of you probably know him, but if you don't, he is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Sex at Dawn. It was a really popular book, very important book in a lot of ways, challenges a lot of the notions put forth by prominent evolutionary psychologists, which, of course, all of you will know that I can appreciate. |
| 0:24.6 | He's been interviewed on, you know, every major TV show, and, you know, he's one of those kinds of characters that is fascinating to listen to, fascinating to read, extremely smart. |
| 0:36.9 | He's like Malcolm Gladwell in that way. He |
| 0:38.9 | spends a lot of time thinking about things and looking at the data, putting it all together |
| 0:43.5 | in a way that we can all digest and really look at our lives and our societies. The implications |
| 0:51.1 | of this new book that he published, civilized to Death, really looks at how we're living in a context that actually drives us to do things that are counter to our happiness and our well-being and even to our societies. |
| 1:06.8 | And when you hear him lay this all out and when you read his book Civilize to death, it just makes so much sense. |
| 1:13.1 | And it's one of those books where he's just like, oh, my God, like everyone needs to read this. |
| 1:16.8 | Everyone needs to hear this guy talk. |
| 1:18.8 | And he came by my home office, my home studio, and we had a wonderful conversation. |
| 1:23.0 | So let's just go to that. |
| 1:24.4 | What can you share with the listeners and me, because I'm fascinated, |
| 1:28.1 | with some of the most interesting points of your book, Civilized to Death? |
| 1:34.1 | Most of the information that we have about life before civilization and, in fact, life after civilization, |
| 1:43.1 | is inaccurate, in my opinion, and is more political |
| 1:47.8 | propaganda than it is science. |
| 1:49.8 | Okay. |
| 1:50.8 | There's been a centuries-long demonization of life before the state. |
| 1:57.0 | We could say it began with Hobbs, but it actually goes back to the beginnings of civilization itself, where people outside the settlement are seen as barbarians and, you know, pagans and, you know, outside the realm of decency. |
| 2:14.5 | So this demonization of the other outside the state has is sort of an integral |
| 2:20.7 | part of civilization itself. And self-appetuating, right? It helps the power structure of the |
| 2:26.4 | government to paint that as like be a part of society, follow our rules, follow our system. |
... |
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